Three Strikes and You're Out
by AlwaysPadfoot
Summary: Molly tried to get his attention a million times, but he never looked her way.


**Three Strikes and You're Out**

 **AlwaysPadfoot**

* * *

 **Strike One**

* * *

My heart leapt when the sorting hat screamed Gryffindor for me. I beamed as the hat was lifted from my head and I hurried to join the other first years at the table underneath the red and gold banners. As I headed there I realised my robes, tie and jumper were now emblazoned with the colours of Gryffindor.

There had been so much pressure for me to be in the same house as all the Weasley's had been and even though no one said it out loud, I was relieved to not have the weight of being in another house on my shoulders.

I took a seat behind Teddy Lupin, our honorary member of the Weasley-Potter clan, he had just been sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Congratulations," Teddy smiled. "This is Gabriel by the way."

I looked to the blonde-haired, freckled boy beside him and I half-blushed, half-smiled. "Hi, I'm Molly, Molly Weasley."

"Gabriel, it's nice to meet you," he responded politely before he turned back and started talking to someone else on his table.

I twitched in confusion, my ears turning pink. Gabriel hadn't been rude, but I felt slightly upset that he hadn't wished to continue any conversation with me. I wished I was more interesting, then maybe Gabriel would have talked to me longer. Lucy said I was boring, maybe she was right and maybe I should try harder to be more interesting.

I tried hard to get involved in the remaining conversation with the first years on my table, but no matter how hard I tried, there was no more exchanges between Gabriel and me. Teddy occasionally spoke to me, but that was only when Gabriel wasn't talking to him.

* * *

As Professor McGonagall called for the prefects to accompany the first years to their dorms, Teddy turned around instead of heading down his table and Gabriel stayed with him.

"See you tomorrow, Molly." Teddy smiled

"Night, Teddy," I said brightly; I paused and then realised that Gabriel was there to, "night Ly-"

I stopped, Gabriel and Teddy had already left

Our prefects took us to the Gryffindor Common Room and I trailed behind a group of lads alongside Florence Adams, a Muggleborn girl with flowing blonde hair and bright green eyes. She was talking to me, but I wasn't particularly listening to what she had to say because I was still really worried about whether I'd ever be interesting enough for boys to like me.

I blew a strand of red hair out of my face in annoyance, thinking about my attempts to communicate and reluctantly followed the girls up to the first year dormitories.

You are going to have to do better than that.

* * *

 **Strike Two**

* * *

"Lewis, if you want to pass your OWL this year you will have to concentrate," Slughorn called across the classroom, "What's the answer to question seven?"

It was clear to me that Gabriel did not know the answer so I quickly checked my own answer and leaned forward towards him, before whispering the answer, "Dittany petals."

"Of course I was listening, Professor," Gabriel smiled from beside Teddy, "The answer's Dittany petals."

Slughorn nodded appreciatively before awarding Hufflepuff ten points causing the boys to high-five each other. I may not have answered the question, but I had indirectly earned points for Hufflepuff, who were well behind in the House cup race, and Gabriel had used my help in class.

I'd been working on being nice to him for the last five years, helping him out, talking to him about Quidditch, and I think it was safe to say that he and I were firm friends. In fact, despite the crappy start, Teddy, Gabriel, Flo and I had formed a tight knit group of friends, despite the house difference. I kind of hoped that soon enough he might ask me out.

"Nice safe, Mols," he said as we left Potions and headed out into the grounds for Herbology.

"Anytime," I smiled.

We took our time as we made our way through the grounds, chatting about various topics including the upcoming OWLs, which even now I was terrified about. Dad pretty much expected the best: good grades, well-paid job and when the time came probably expected me to bring up a family that was just as successful as his.

"You realise, Sandy, that Molly won't be able to whisper answers to you in our exams," Teddy smirked, ruffling the blonde's hair.

"Yeah, you're lucky Slughorn's deaf," Flo smirked, "If we'd been in Greengrass' class she would have ripped you both apart without lifting a finger."

Professor Greengrass was so strict with the the boys in her classes it was hilarious for the whole female population of the school. She particularly enjoyed picking up any mistake that Gabriel and Teddy made in her classes; it had become a game between the pair and Greengrass.

"Nah, Greengrass loves us," Gabriel commented.

I pulled a face. Greengrass definitely did not love them. Glancing across at Flo, I could see that she too seemed to be in disbelief and raised an eyebrow at me.

"I find that hard to believe she muttered." she muttered.

Teddy and Gabriel decided to race down the glass slope, leaving Flo and me to take the steps down to the Greenhouses. I watched them carefully sure that one of them would slip until I noticed Flo was eyeing me sideways.

"You okay there?" She asked.

"Huh, yeah," I answered. "I'm fine."

"You going to Hogsmeade with anyone this weekend?"

"Nah."

"What? I thought Matthew Green was going to ask you?"

Matthew Green did ask me, but I told him that I wasn't going because I had lots of work to do. I mean Flo was going with her friend from Hufflepuff, who she knew from her neighbourhood back home. Teddy and Gabriel were going to go to Honeydukes, but neither of them seemed to include me in their plans. I was sure if I asked, they'd take me, but I was too proud to do that.

"Oh he did, but I've got loads of work to do." I explained to her.

"Mols. Screw work." Flo said bluntly. "Go and do something fun. We can do work on Sunday."

"I already said no though."

"Just go tell him you're a blithering idiot and you'd love to go." Flo grinned.

Upon reaching the Greenhouses, Teddy was having an in-depth conversation with Victoire, who had probably just finished her fourth year Herbology class. Gabriel was standing talking to Oliver, Victoire's Ravenclaw friend, uninterested by the blatant flirting happening between his best friend and my part veela cousin.

Gabriel just never seemed interested in anyone, particularly not me.

* * *

 **Strike Three**

* * *

Just three more paragraphs and I reckoned I'd be finished. Greengrass had set us a foot and a half of parchment and I was really close, but I was struggling to finish the last bit.

I checked my watch.

Eleven fifty was far too late to be up on a weekday, especially a weekday where I didn't even have a prefect patrol. Checking my timetable, I decided that I could finish the essay in my free tomorrow alongside the Muggle Studies work I still had to do.

I'd just shoved my textbook into my bag when Gabriel came in through the portrait hole. His hair was disheveled and his eyes eye wide; I knew immediately something that was wrong. He was always so cheerful and sarcastic that to see any expression that wasn't elation - or any variation of that - on his face was really obvious. Besides he was in our Common Room, not the Hufflepuff one.

"Gabriel?" I said tentatively.

His eyes shot to me as though he hadn't realised I'd been sitting in the corner. It seemed as though he was at a loss for words.

"Are you okay?" I questioned. "Come and sit down."

He sat right on the edge of the chair beside me, his leg juddering as he took a wobbly breath.

"I'm not okay."

"What's the matter?" I asked, my voice low in case the seventh years sitting across the room heard me.

"Well you know that I really liked Oliver, Victoire's friend?"

No.

"Yeah..." I lied.

Oh my God. Gabriel liked Oliver? Had I really been that stupid that I'd spent this long as Gabriel's friend and never once heard him mention Oliver, or indeed that he was into guys at all?

"Well, me and him were up in the Ravenclaw Common Room and he made a move and I wasn't, I didn't," he took another shaky breath. "I didn't want to do anything and he was really..."

Gabriel trailed off and I felt my gut twist. Oliver had turned Gabriel into a mess and I was angry.

"What did he do Gabriel?" I asked.

He shook his head. "He didn't get the chance. I kneed him in the balls and bolted here because it was the closest."

He looked away. I was sure he was trying to hide tears and I bit my lip, trying desperately to keep back an unusual anger bubbling just under the surface of my skin. I gently touched his arm.

"Good. He's an utter dick and you don't deserve someone like him in your life."

"You think I should say something to Teddy, or do you think ex going to think that I'm a loser?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh," my voice broke before I swallowed. "No. He won't think you're a loser. If he did, which he wouldn't, I'd have to hex him to the Quidditch Pitch and back. Oliver is the loser. You are not, you just happened to like the seriously wrong person." I explained.

 _A bit like you there Molly_.

Gabriel did something he'd never done before and hugged me tightly.

"Thanks Mols, you always know what to say," he whispered into my shoulder.

"You're welcome."

It was at that moment that Gabriel and I became like brother and sister and my five year old crush began to quickly fade.

Love was something I would just have to explore elsewhere, not with my best friend.


End file.
